“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” – Romans 12:1
Every time we receive a gift from someone we love, and we see the care and effort they put into it, our hearts are filled with joy. It is not the material thing itself that moves us, but the willingness and love behind it, the desire to bring us joy.
As Christians, we sometimes forget that Jesus did not call us only to believe in Him. He called us to follow Him. When He said, “If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me (Matthew 16:24).” He was calling us for a life of submission to Him. Paul is making that same appeal here. He is calling us beyond belief alone into a life willingly laid down before God.
Many of us assume that serving God is more important than fellowshipping with Him. We become eager to do things for God before we have learned to lay down our entire being before Him. Yet Scripture shows us a different order. When Jesus walked the earth, “He called unto Himself His twelve disciples.” Before He sent them out, He first called them to Himself. The Lord Jesus desired intimacy before activity. He wanted them to be with Him to learn from Him, to walk with Him, and to be formed by His presence. Only after they had remained with Him did He release them into ministry. The Word of God says that He then gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Their authority flowed out of relationship, not ambition. We know how fully these men later presented their bodies to the Lord Jesus. Every one of them laid down his life for Him. But notice the pattern before they served others, they stayed in God’s presence. Before they were sent out, they were first called in.
This is where we often misunderstand our calling. Doing things for God is good, it is necessary but it is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that our heart has already been given to the Lord. If we do not understand this order, then we will not understand what Paul is pleading for. God is not first asking for our service; He is asking for us.
When Paul pleads with us and says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren,” he is speaking to people who have already received Jesus into their lives. He is not addressing unbelievers, but believers those who have already heard and believed the gospel. In the previous chapters before this appeal, Paul has carefully explained the salvation of God, the unfailing love of Christ from which we cannot be separated, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Then, Paul urges us to willingly place our lives before God.
When he says, “by the mercies of God.” Every one of us who has received salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ has received mercy. We have all been redeemed by His blood. We have escaped the wrath of God not because we deserved it, but because God was merciful. If God were not merciful, He would never have come down and died in our place. But many of us are deeply interested in the blessings of God upon our lives, yet far fewer desire to lay down our lives before Him. That is why Paul must plead with us. He calls us to consider the mercy we have received, the salvation that rescued us and spared us from judgment and to respond rightly to it.
Paul urges us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This language reminds us of how priests presented sacrifices before the Lord. Yet sacrifice in the Old Testament was not only about the forgiveness of sins. There were burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, and first-fruit offerings. Each had a different purpose, but they all shared one common requirement: the offering had to be given willingly by the people, and the ministry of presenting it had to be done willingly by the priest. Above all, every sacrifice had to be holy in order to be acceptable to God.
These offerings were a foreshadowing of what God now desires from all of us. Through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been made holy. His blood has cleansed us and made us acceptable to God. As the Scripture says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). Again it is written, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Now that God has made us holy and acceptable through Jesus Christ, He invites us to respond. He calls us to willingly offer ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, just as Jesus offered Himself. This is what Paul is pleading for. He is calling us to lay down our whole lives before God. From the very beginning, God has not been most interested in what we do for Him. His desire has always been intimate fellowship with us. He longs for us to offer our lives to Him willingly, not by force. God is sovereign not a tyrant. God desires that we love Him freely with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength. And when we love Him in this way, God Himself gives us the ability to do what He calls us to do.
We cannot truly live out God’s will for our lives until we first understand what He desires, and that understanding is born out of an intimate relationship with Him. That relationship begins when we willingly lay down our lives before God and confidently declare, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). And from that place of submission, our lives take on a new purpose. “So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Our greatest desire was not self-preservation, but that Jesus Christ would be clearly seen and glorified through our life.
When we truly understand this and make it our confession, we begin to see what God has called us to. Jesus said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24). Real life begins when we willingly give our lives to God. This is where we can understand what Paul meant when he say, “which is your reasonable service.” We cannot serve God rightly unless we first lay down our lives before Him. When our lives are first given to God, our service flows naturally from that place. Obedience then becomes an expression of love, not obligation.
The Lord Jesus Himself set this pattern for us. He first submitted to the Father by laying down His life for us on the cross. This was the will of God for Him, that through His sacrifice we might be saved. Jesus said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). The clearest evidence of Jesus’ submission to God is found in the work of the cross. As it is written, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). His life, laid down on the cross, was a perfect, holy, and acceptable sacrifice to God. In the same way, we are called to follow His example. As it is written, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). This is where we see the pattern clearly: without willingly laying down our lives to God, we cannot fully walk in His will for our lives. And if we are unwilling to lay down our lives before Him, God cannot truly work in us, because we are still holding ownership of our own lives.
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